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Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Already Break 2 Presidential Promises Before Day 2 On The Job?

Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Already Break 2 Presidential Promises Before Day 2 On The Job?

Joe Biden
Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Already Break 2 Presidential Promises Before Day 2 On The Job? Photo: President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Joe Biden has been president for a day, but it seems he has already broken at least two promises.

Hen vowed to make multiple decisions on Day One of his presidency, and one of the things on his immediate to-do list was to act on the issues of policing and mass incarceration. It hasn’t happened yet. Biden, who was criticized for his part in writing the 1994 Crime Bill, had promised to correct some of the ramifications that bill had on Black America, such as mass incarceration.

Civil rights activist Shaun King made note of the broken promise on Twitter. “I just saw Biden’s official list of executive orders for today. He promised that he would act on the issues of policing & mass incarceration on Day 1, but appears to have already broken that promise. The list of orders is long and varied, but not a thing on mass incarceration,” King tweeted.

In response, a Twitter user urged Americans to give Biden the benefit of the doubt: “Just because you don’t see it on the list doesn’t mean it won’t get done. I think we’ve had enough contention these past 4 years and we need to give Biden a chance. It’s time for unity!!”

Another person tweeted, “To everybody in the comments below saying, ‘It’s his first day, calm down, get a job at Fox news.’ We are allowed to hold everyone in OUR government accountable for their actions + words. Nobody is immune. Nobody. We don’t give him a day.”

Some people don’t put too much stock in Day One promises. “But the ‘Day One’ part is largely a rhetorical flourish, meant more to underscore a readiness to take office than an actual to-do list,” Bloomberg reported.

Still, campaign promises usually get candidates elected.

Biden has vowed to rein in police abuse, reform criminal sentencing, and inject fresh resources into low-income communities battered by inequality, The Washington Post reported. He made it sound easy. Most experts agreed that such changes would take years.

“What Joe Biden is inheriting is the legacy of the cultural wars that began in the 1960s but still beset the country today,” said Leonard Steinhorn, a professor of communication and history at American University, in a Washington Post interview. “And Joe Biden didn’t run as a policy candidate, he ran as cultural candidate — as someone who could restore the soul of the country. … The question is: How does he do that?”

Many criminal reform advocates are pushing for police defunding, something Biden came out against. “No, I don’t support defunding the police,” he told CBS News in June. “I support conditioning federal aid to police, based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorableness. And, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community and everybody in the community.”

A comprehensive criminal justice plan Biden released in July seeks to end disparities in federal sentencing for crimes involving powder and crack cocaine as well as decriminalizing marijuana and shifting government resources from incarceration to crime prevention, The Washington Post reported.

Biden’s Day-One acts addressed such issues as the Paris Climate Accord, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals ), immigration, student debt, housing foreclosures, covid precaution measures and deportations but not criminal justice reforms.

A second failed Day One Biden promise was the one where he said he would issue $2,000 stimulus checks to Americans. Biden scaled back the amount to $1,400, apparently deducting the $600 checks sent out in late December by the Trump administration, weeks before the inauguration.

Biden did unveil a $1.9 trillion package that includes an additional $1,400 stimulus payment to many taxpayers and their dependents, CNBC reported.

Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.

“We will finish the job of getting a total of $2,000 in cash relief to people who need it the most,” Biden said. “The $600 already appropriated is simply not enough.”

Some lawmakers including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are complaining that Democrats still need to fulfill their campaign promise and provide full $2,000 payments.

″$2,000 means $2,000. $2,000 does not mean $1,400,″ Ocasio-Cortez told the Washington Post.

Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) also tweeted support for an additional $2,000 check.